I think...

....Mass Effect 2 is possibly one of the best game experiences I have had in some time. Everything I disliked about the original has been dealt with, and the gameplay is now as strong, and more importantly as fun, as the fantastic storytelling...on the second play through already.

...it's great to have Chuck back on TV. Not sure on the new addition to the cast, but the they are handling the intersect 2.0 aspect really well without losing out on what makes the show fun in the first place.

...Star trek Online is better than many are giving it credit for. Try it for yourself before you make a judgement, there are definitely some fun elements in there.

...I can't wait to get further into Robin Hobb's Rain Wild Chronicles, loved her first three Trilogies (the Soldier Son trilogy though didn't have the same effect on me for some reason). I usually wait until all three books are published so I don't have to wait, but I have caved in and started out on Dragon Keeper

Mass Effect 2 is such a great game, why do you think MMOs couldn't use that kind of gameplay more often? I understand why we can't all have that kind of storytelling for hundreds of hours rather than twenty or so (and really only actually ten to fifteen of non-filler) but the gameplay like that in an MMO would rock! It's not like it is shooter pace, and the inter-play of abilities expanded to real people would be awesome!

@JamesAnderson I think you could definitely take elements from it. As a straight conversion I think whethe it would have a mass appeal (no pun intended :p) in an MMO setting is debatable mainly because the gameplay hinges on the enviornments.

The gameplay dictates a fairly rigid and linear gameworld set-up. That isn't meant as a criticism in terms of ME2, far from it. But it does mean that you would have to consider whether it work for a traditional MMO given that for many players the beauty of an MMO is in the openess and prefer a much less linear setting than in a single player game.

Then look at the character progression. The character development and suite of available skills and abilties works fantastically in ME2 for a game with twenty to thirty gameplay hours. An MMO however is designed to be appealing and provide progression for many hundreds, so that's another area that would need significant changes to remain interesting in the long term. Since that system interacts so closely with the game-play you would have a real challenge making teh gameplay in ME2 still captivating and appealing after a hundred hours (in particular if you strip away the story, which really is the best element of the game)

There are definitely elements you can take from it, but doing it in the same way in an MMO would have it's fair sare of design challenges.

It is very easy to play a great single player game and really want to imagine how great it would be playing with friends in an MMO setting, but when you peel back the layers a little it is often a very different story and you discover there are some serious design challenges involved!

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My name is Craig Morrison and this is my personal space on the web. I'm a professional MMO developer, amateur everything else. Painter, writer, photographer and creatively curious cat. Plies trade at Blizzard on World of Warcraft.